Michelle Maryk

Michelle’s first attempt at novel writing came at the age of eight and was scrawled into a tiny, green spiral notebook. The title: I Hate Tuna (imagine the horrifying true story of the book Alive, but instead of the plane-crash surviving protagonist resorting to cannibalism, she’s forced to subsist on her most-hated food, canned tuna). Ah well.

Born and raised in Princeton, NJ, her mother is Swedish and her father is first generation American with Albanian parents. Her heart and soul are deeply rooted in the family’s little house on an island in the Baltic Sea. She’s a dual-citizen of Sweden and the US.

There was rarely a time in Michelle’s childhood where she wasn’t trying to drum up a ghost (by way of seance or the Ouija board); locate proof of extraterrestrial life; or sneak off to buy Big Wheel cupcakes and Twizzlers at the local Wawa. As a kid, she was obsessed with all things supernatural and watched and read as much creepy stuff she could get her hands on.

She attended Cornell University and the Yale Writer’s Workshop. After college, she moved to NYC and altered course to pursue a comedy, acting and voice-over/commercial career (which she still does today).

In 2019, she circled back to her first love of writing narrative fiction—none of which involves canned tuna—and has written four novels since then. The Found Object Society is her first.

Fun fact: Michelle starred in an atrocious horror movie alongside Oscar-winner, Cliff Robertson, called The13th Child. The movie was written by… Michelle’s dad.

She and her husband live in the Hudson Valley along with their two bonkers cats.